Nikon To Announce New 20mm F/1.8G with Nano Coating? D610 to be Discontinued?

We are all waiting for that Nikon D750 announcement, which may come next week, but another Nikon rumor caught my eye this morning. It appears that Nikon may have a new 20mm F/1.8G lens in the works, though no word on if it will be announced at Photokina or not.

The report comes from Nikon Rumors, who references a tweet (from an account that has since been made private and is no longer publicly viewable) from a camera shop worker in Japan. That tweet, in addition to other details from other sources, leads the NR admin to believe that this is indeed a lens that Nikon has coming down the pipes.

Here is a rough translation of the tweet above:

D750 to be announced this month, specs: 6.5fps, AF unit same as the D810
D610 might be discontinued soon
At the same time a new lens will be announced: AF-S 20mm f/1.8G with Nano crystal coating
This is fun

The other interesting tidbit there is about the Nikon D610 possibly being discontinued soon. That, would be VERY surprising to me as the camera is so new, but I suppose it is a possibility if Nikon feels that the D750 will kill the D610 market.

I, personally, think a new 20mm F/1.8 would be awesome. Nano Coating is usually reserved for Nikon’s top class lenses, which means this will also likely be an expensive one. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out with just over a week before Photokina. So, stay tuned…

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What are your thoughts on this new 20mm lens rumor? Do you think that Nikon would really discontinue the D610 so soon? Leave a comment below!

Anthony Thurston is a photographer based in the Salem, Oregon area specializing in Boudoir. He recently started a new project, Fiercely Boudoir to help support the growing boudoir community. Find him over on Instagram. You may also connect with him via Email.

Q&A Discussions

I own the D600 as my backup body to my D3S. I just can’t get myself to pick up that camera unless I absolutely need too. If there’s time to change lenses during a wedding, I find that I’ll change to the D3S everytime vs just using the lens that is attached to the 600. I wish I could go back in time and not buy this camera. And that’s not b/c I don’t think it’s a great camera. I am probably not giving it the chance it really deserves….but I don’t think my decision to buy it was the right one at the time…it came more out of necessity, needing a Full Frame backup that wouldn’t cost me the same as another D3S or D4 in case my main camera failed on a job.

Yeah, you should have stuck with a used D700, as my D600 review stated. ;-)

OK but seriously, yes the D600 is an amazing camera, in that it is lightweight and offers great image quality at an affordable price. That’s about it though. Everything else about it is prosumer. If you’re used to a flagship, it’s gonna feel prosumer. So while I wouldn’t hesitate to take a D600 on a landscape adventure any day, versus either a D700 or D3s, …I wouldn’t hesitate to forego a D600 and opt for a pair of D700’s for a wedding or similar type of paid job.

You are right Matthew, the D700 are for people who are working and need performance. I think if they can achieve 8fps that would be amazing at 24 mp. But maybe they will only be able to shoot at 6.5 a little faster than the Canon 5D Mark III at a higher resolution. I am praying for 8fps.

Rafael, the 5D mk3 has one thing working against it: the only raw setting is 14-bit lossless compression. Nikon has 12-bit lossy compression as an option, which more than cuts the filesize in half, often less than 1 megabyte per megapixel. In other words, if the 5D mk3 can hit 6 FPS at 22 MP 14-bit lossless raw, the D750 could absolutely hit 8 FPS using 12-bit lossy compression.

Maybe some raw die-hards would balk at this, but IMO anyone who shoots volume or does basically anything at all that requires 8 FPS will probably be just fine with 12-bit lossy compressed RAW. I’ve done extensive testing and have yet to see a significant difference…

I think the D610 has plenty of life left in it, and when it’s done well get a killer D650 or something. The discontinuation of the D610 will probably not come too soon, but maybe Nikons sales aren’t as high as they’d hoped for either the 600 or the 610 , and they’re anticipating needing to retire it sooner than they had originally expected. Compared to say, the Canon 6D’s potential lifespan which seems to be doing alright.

Either way, having the D750 in the lineup will make it more FX cameras than ever! I think. D4s, Df, D810, D750, D610. Have we ever had five FX bodies and only three DX bodies?

Yeah, I will be pretty surprised if Nikon axes the D610 already. Unless they kill off the whole D6xx line and make the D750 a little cheaper than most are expecting.

-or-

This could just be a huge ploy to get rid of the D6xx line, and really the D750 is just the D650, and they wanted to distance themselves from the D600 debacle. Regardless, the sheer amount of FX cameras in the Nikon system is nuts.

I was actually wondering how many full frame bodies they would currently support at one time. If this D750 is everything people keep hoping it’s going to be, maybe Nikon just wants to put this whole D6XX series behind them since people might associate it with problems

I agree. The D600 was a problem for Nikon and the D610 seemed like a more than acceptable replacement, especially if you were one of the people who got one for free as a replacement for your defective D600. But this is Nikon’s entry level full frame camera. It’s about $1,000 more than their top of the line DX, the D7100. I can’t imagine that market is not viable, especially when you go up the chain, you’re dropping $2,000 more above the cost of the D7100 for the D800.

Considering the price of the D700 and D800, (both about $3k) I don’t think the D750 will deviate from that number by more than $200-300.and considering the price of the red-headed stepchild that is the Df, I’m gonna bet that the D750 costs about as much as the D810.

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